WiS Lesson 8D “Special Interest”

May 3rd, 2010

The original Writing in Stereo was published online back in the late 1980's. Its purpose was to apply creative radio dramatics or broadcast journalism to all aspects of the teaching of high school English. Each lesson included a lesson plan and notes. I'm sharing these with you here.

UNIT OBJECTIVE: (VIII) The student will practice the confident pursuit of information in the classroom simulation, "Special Interest."

LESSON OBJECTIVE: (D) The students will form four (4) coalitions supporting four special interests.

MATERIALS REQUIRED: Paper and pencil

INTRODUCTION: Now you have your preferences and your friends who share those views. Now comes the first challenge. We want just four special interest groups in the four corners of the room. And now the media is interested in what happens. They'll be circulating among you following developments and looking for information and interviews. Let's get to it.

PROCEDURE

1. Students should work with their partners to discover even more students who share their views or are very close to sharing their views.

2. These groups should continue to grow until there are four distinct factions, hopefully composing roughly equal numbers.

3. The process might almost happen too quickly, but the media's interest in gathering and disseminating information and the special interests' need for that information should slow things down to a sane pace. Do not allow things to get out of hand. Should students become too enthusiastic, direct their energies to other groups.

EVALUATION FOCUS: Again, you should observe an enthusiastic, albeit noisy, pursuit of information--both by the media and by students trying to find others who share their views.